600 corporations (1/2% of all U. S.companies) accounted for 53% of total corporateincome.



WHY??

Cold War military buildup.

A Changing Workplace

New Corporate Culture:

“The Company Man”

1956

Sloan Wilson’s

The Man in

the Gray Flannel Suit

Women

lose factory jobs in the post warperiod, but gain service sector jobs

“pink collar” sector–

secretarial work

Pop culture still glorifies the housewife and thecult of domesticity

Betty Friedan and NOW reject this image

Feminine Mystique

Well-Defined Gender Roles

Theideal modern woman

married, cooked andcared for her family, and kept herself busy byjoining the local PTA and leading a troop ofCampfire Girls. She entertained guests in herfamily’s suburban house and worked out on thetrampoline to keep her size 12 figure.

--

Life

magazine, 1956

Theideal 1950s man

was the provider, protector,

and the boss of the house.--

Life

magazine,1955

The Culture of the Car

Car registrations: 1945

㈵ⰰ,〬0〰

†††††††††††ㄹ㘰1

㘰ⰰ,〬0〰

2-family cars doubles from 1951-1958

1956

䥮瑥牳瑡瑥t䡩杨睡H 䅣A



污牧l獴s灵扬p挠睯牫猠灲潪p捴c楮i䅭敲楣慮ahistory!



Cost $32 billion.



41,000 miles of new highways built.

The Culture of the Car

•America became a more homogeneousnation because of the automobile.

The Culture of the Car

The U. S. population was on the move inthe 1950s.

NE & Mid-W

匠☠南S(“Sunbelt” states)

1955

䑩獮敹污湤n潰o湥搠楮i卯畴S敲渠California.

(40% of the guests came from outsideCalifornia, most by car.)

Television

1946†㜬〰〠呖T獥瑳t楮i瑨攠售U匮

1950†㔰ⰰ,〬0〰 呖⁳整e 楮i瑨攠售⁓U

Mass Audience

呖T捥汥l牡瑥rtraditional American values.

“Television is a vast wasteland.”



乥睴潮N䵩湮潷Ⱐ䍨慩牭慮a潦o瑨攠Federal Communications Commission,1961

Television in the 1950s and 1960s

Leave It to Beaver

1957-1963

Father

Knows Best

1954-1958

The Ozzie & Harriet Show

1952-1966

Religious Revival

Church membership: 1940††㘴6〰0ⰰ,0

1960

ㄱ㐬4〰ⰰ,0

Television Preachers:

1. CatholicBishop Fulton J. Sheen



“Life is

Worth Living”

2. Methodist MinisterNorman Vincent Peale



††The Power of Positive Thinking

3.Reverend Billy Graham



散畭敮楣u氠message; warned against the evils ofCommunism.

Progress Through Science

1951--

First IBM Mainframe Computer

1952--

Hydrogen Bomb

Test

1953--

DNA

Structure Discovered

1954--

Salk Vaccine

Tested for Polio

1957--

First CommercialU. S. Nuclear

Power Plant

1958--

NASA

Created

1959--

Press Conference of theFirst 7

American Astronauts

The 50s Come to a Close

1959

乩硯N-䭨牵獨K桥瘠“Kitchen Debate”

An entire house was built that the Americanexhibitors claimed anyone in America couldafford. It was filled with labor saving andrecreational devices meant to represent the fruitsof thecapitalist American consumer market.